Infants and other incontinent individuals wear absorbent articles such as diapers to absorb and retain urine and other body exudates. Absorbent articles function both to contain the discharged materials and to isolate these materials from the body of the wearer and from the wearer's garments and bed clothing. Disposable absorbent articles having many different basic designs are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. Re. 26,151, entitled "Disposable Diaper" issued to Duncan and Baker on Jan. 31, 1967, describes a disposable diaper which has achieved wide acceptance and commercial success. U.S. Pat. No. 3,860,003, entitled "Contractable Side Portions For Disposable Diaper", issued to Buell on Jan. 14, 1975, describes an elastic leg cuff disposable diaper which has achieved wide acceptance and commercial success.
Many diaper designs are relatively wide and bulky, when dry and particularly when wet, in the region of the article that fits between the legs of the wearer. This results in a certain level of discomfort to the wearer, as these diapers tend to bunch when worn. In an effort to address wearer discomfort, U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,678 (Weisman et al.) describes diapers comprising densified cores that are narrower in this region than were prior designs. Nonetheless, even these articles store significant levels of absorbed fluids in the discharge region of the article. This discharge region is positioned within the portion of the article that fits in the wearer's crotch region when worn.
Since prior absorbent articles do not effectively distribute fluid, these articles are typically designed to store significant quantities of fluid in the crotch region of the diaper. Thus, upon each loading, this region of the article becomes increasingly bulky and therefore tends to be more uncomfortable for the wearer. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,098,423 to Pieniak et al., which builds on the disclosure of the Weisman patent, and describes a low dry bulk disposable diaper. The focus of the '423 patent is an article having a relatively low cross sectional area, when dry, particularly in the "impact zone" (defined in the patent as the second and third fifths of the article's length). Indeed, an important aspect of the described articles is the ability of the absorbent material in the impact zone to absorb fluid. The patent specifically indicates that at least 60% of the total absorbed fluid is retained in the diaper's impact zone. Thus, while the patent discusses the desire for improved fit when dry, it fails to address the issue of providing improved fit and comfort throughout the entire wearing period. Moreover, the primary consideration for improving fit is on thin and wide structures which fold and bunch during use, rather than optimizing narrowness and bulk, dry and wet, of the absorbent material in the crotch region. Accordingly, the articles described in the '423 patent have an overall low cross sectional area when dry, accomplished by providing a relatively thin (i.e., in the article's the z-dimension), relatively wide (i.e., in the article's x-dimension) core. However, the core retains 60% of its absorbent capacity in the crotch region. This results in reduced comfort when the article is wetted with body fluid.
It therefore would be advantageous to provide an absorbent structure that provides better fit and wearer comfort, even after the structure is wetted with body fluids. It would be further advantageous to provide an absorbent structure which has reduced bulk in the crotch region in both the dry and wet states. Such structures would provide absorbent articles having improved fit and comfort, even when wetted with body fluids.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent structure having improved fit on the wearer during use by reducing the crotch width of the structure when the structure is dry as well as when the structure is wetted with fluid.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an absorbent structure that provides improved comfort for the wearer resulting from the structure's ability to readily distribute and store a significant amount of fluid remote from the crotch region of the structure.
It is a further object of the invention to provide absorbent articles comprising these absorbent structures.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more readily apparent when considered in reference to the following description and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.